'Tighten up asset laws'

2003-06-10 15:05

Cape Town - National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka on Tuesday appealed to MPs to beef up legislation governing asset forfeitures.

This followed a high court order won by controversial businessman Billy Rautenbach last year for the release of more than R40m worth of assets seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU).

The ruling - by Johannesburg High Court Judge Pierre Rabie - had allowed Rautenbach to take the assets out of the country, to Zimbabwe, despite the government appealing against the decision, Ngcuka told Parliament's justice portfolio committee.

"We would like the legislature to give consideration to this.

"How can people use the legal system to protect their rights, but then don't want to submit to the jurisdiction of our courts," he said.

The AFU, three years ago, seized Rautenbach's assets, including a luxury home in Sandhurst, Johannesburg, a farm in Paarl, aircrafts, a yacht, as well as various bank accounts.

The former Hyundai boss in South Africa had been charged with large-scale fraud, theft, money laundering and evasion of import duties.

Ngcuka said he hoped the committee would look into the case and strengthen the law to ensure those accused could not flee with their assets, even though cases were still subject to appeal.

Johnny de Lange, the committee's chairperson, said this should not be allowed to happen again.

"It is absolutely flabbergasting that a judge can allow that to happen," he said.

Ngcuka also said his office was putting in place a system to dramatically cut down on the number of criminal cases withdrawn before the courts.

The frequency of suspects being arrested and the cases never coming to court, despite being placed on the court roll, was a source of serious concern.

This was particularly the case when arrests were made over a weekend and cases put onto the roll on Monday morning, despite there being no chance of conviction.

Prosecutors were now visiting police stations on Sundays to screen dockets before they were placed on the roll, and only in exceptional instances would a suspect be taken to court before a final decision was taken to prosecute.

The new policy would also help ensure against innocent persons being arrested, and detained, he said.

- SAPA